An academic unit may request a waiver of a national search for a tenure-line faculty position in instances where academic units have:

• an opportunity to offer a position to an outstanding faculty member in the field
• have an opportunity to recruit an outstanding faculty member from an underrepresented group (see the SVPAA Faculty Diversity Hiring Initiative Guidelines)
• wish to transfer an outstanding career-line faculty member to a tenure-line position for the purposes of retention
• want to offer a tenure-line position to an outstanding partner of another new hire or as part of a retention package for an existing faculty member (see the SVPAA Dual Career Academic Partners Guidelines)

Requests for search waivers should be made as early as possible in the process.

• In general, units should notify the AVP for Faculty and/or the SVPAA of their interest in a search waiver prior to beginning discussions with a potential candidate.
• Units may reach out to the AVP for Faculty or the SVPAA to discuss the possibility of a search waiver prior to the formal submission of the request.

Please keep in mind that approval is not automatic.

Please submit a recruitment waiver request packet via email officeforfaculty@utah.edu.  The request will be reviewed and approved through the appropriate personnel in the SVPAA’s office.

The request packet must include:

1. Candidate CV
2. Letter from the department chair to the college dean requesting a search waiver*
3. Letter from the college dean to the SVPAA indicating support of requested waiver

The letters from the department chair and the college dean should indicate the reasons a search waiver is appropriate in this case, including:

• which of the above four reasons for a search waiver apply in this case
• the benefit to the department, college, and university of the proposed hire
• the potential contribution of the potential hire to the diversity of the University’s faculty
• the relationship between this hire and the department’s and the college’s Strategic Diversity Faculty Hiring and Retention Plans
• the funding source for this hire

Once approved, the Office for Faculty will create an internal posting within PeopleAdmin to which the candidate will apply. Once the candidate has applied, the department will then submit a Hiring Proposal in PeopleAdmin following the usual process, which includes the following required documentation:

1. Draft offer letter to the candidate
2. Reference Attestation Form or Letters of Recommendation
3. Report of the department faculty votes for:
   • Appoint of the candidate
   • Rank of the candidate

*Single-department colleges may simply submit a letter from the college dean to the SVPAA.